The Quiet Revolution

One of the
biggest frustrations of public officials who sincerely want to serve the
public—and there are more of them than you might think—is how easily
self-promoting demagogues can draw media attention compared to qualified
professionals who are quietly working to create positive change.

That’s true
right now with a collaborative effort of top officials you probably haven’t
heard about even though you already know many of the players. Their efforts could
soon result in smarter criminal justice policies and improved public safety
statewide.

The executive
committee of the Milwaukee County Community Justice Council includes most of
those responsible locally for criminal justice policy.

The council
includes Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, County Executive Chris Abele, District
Attorney John Chisholm, Chief Judge Jeffrey Kremers, Police Chief Ed Flynn,
Sheriff David Clarke, Tom Reed of the public defenders office, Supervisor
Willie Johnson (representing the county board), the regional director of state
corrections, and other justice professionals.

This group is
going into its third year and has won technical assistance from the National
Institute of Corrections to improve the county’s criminal justice system
through evidence-based decisions creating alternatives to mass incarceration.

Chisholm
describes the twin goals as both reducing crime and reducing the costs of
expensive incarceration when there are better alternatives.

Sheriff
Clarke’s the Odd Man Out

Sadly, the
only time most people hear about Milwaukee County’s evidence-based
improvements—which will be closely monitored to document whether they succeed
here as they have elsewhere—is when those changes are publicly attacked by the
only member of the Community Justice Council who has consistently opposed them.

No one will be
surprised to learn the odd man out among cooperating community leaders and
justice professionals is Sheriff Clarke. And that Clarke’s latest sniping has
crossed over into sheer absurdity.

Clarke’s
overheated publicity machine blasted the bail set on someone charged with a
misdemeanor, the notorious bike path fanny-feeler.

Clarke called
the accused man’s $500 bail proof that the court’s new universal screening
system, which determines bail based on evidence of risk and needs instead of a
judge’s whim, was a “boondoggle.”

Clarke chose
to champion this particular misdemeanor because the incident already had been
ridiculously overplayed in the media.

Two women
joggers said the offender rode up behind them on a bicycle and touched them as
he went by. Clarke loves nothing better than being the hero of ridiculously
over-covered media stories.

What the
sheriff actually demonstrated was that he doesn’t understand the purpose of
bail.

The purpose of
bail is to make sure that someone charged with a crime returns to court. Bail
is intentionally set so high that a person remains incarcerated only when that
individual is extremely violent and a clear threat to the community.

That’s because
no one has determined whether the accused is guilty of anything when that
individual is charged with a crime. In America, we’re innocent until proven guilty.
Only in police states do arresting officers get to act as prosecutor, judge and
jury, a system Clarke seems to prefer.

In a
misdemeanor, no matter how inappropriate and over-publicized, there’s little
question this man will show up in court. He’s being monitored by a criminal
justice agency that also tests him regularly for drugs and alcohol, a factor in
his charge.

Clarke’s
frustration is that criminal justice professionals, no matter how conservative,
are increasingly realizing that mass incarceration is not economically
sustainable or the best way to reduce crime.

For years,
outside consultants have argued Wisconsin wastes millions by expensively
incarcerating low-level, non-violent offenders whose behavior can be
permanently, humanely and far more economically changed with treatment for drug
and alcohol addiction and mental illness.

Incarceration
of these individuals actually produces more crime and makes communities less
safe because people returning from prison with a record are often denied legitimate
jobs and driven to crime to survive.

Gov. Scott
Walker learned that as county executive and as a founding member of the
Community Justice Council. That’s why he appointed a state-level Criminal
Justice Coordinating Council to examine the possibility of extending
Milwaukee’s evidence-based improvements statewide.

That’s why
Walker and even some conservative Republican legislators have been more
receptive than you might expect to the statewide 11x15 Campaign for Justice
launched by WISDOM, a faith-based social justice coalition of churches, to cut
Wisconsin’s prison population of 23,000 in half by 2015.

If those
efforts succeed in the Legislature as they have in Milwaukee, the largest
feeder into the state’s soaring tax-eating corrections budget, the savings to
taxpayers and, even more important, the positive change in people’s lives will
be revolutionary.

That quiet
revolution by responsible public leaders will make a far greater difference in
justice and public safety than some showboat in a cowboy hat running to the
media to fight evidence-based change.